1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing system or a monitored data collection system collecting and accumulating monitored data, for example, a processing temperature or a pressure in a processing chamber, etc., which is outputted from a substrate processing apparatus processing a substrate, for example, a semiconductor wafer, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a manufacturing apparatus of a semiconductor device (semiconductor manufacturing apparatus), which is a substrate processing apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 may include component units of the substrate processing apparatus such as a load port 114 loading and unloading pods 110 which is a substrate accommodating unit accommodating a plurality of wafers (substrates), a pod opener 121 detaching caps of the pods 110, a rotating shelf 105 temporarily preserving the pods 110, a pod transfer unit 118 transferring the pods 110, a boat 217 stacking and mounting the wafers, a wafer transfer instrument 125 performing transfer of the wafers between the pods 110 loaded on a placing board 122 of the pod opener 121 and the boat 217, a thermal processing furnace 202 including a substrate processing chamber (not shown) or a heater (not shown), a boat elevator 115 loading the boat 217 into and unloading the boat 217 from the thermal processing furnace 202, a storing unit (not shown), etc., and a control unit (not shown) controlling each of the component units. The control unit may perform wafer processing such as heat treatment, etc. based on a process recipe stored in the memory unit.
A conventional substrate processing apparatus may constantly or periodically collect monitor information including sensor information such as a temperature measurement value or a pressure value, etc. in the thermal processing furnace 202, and actuator information such as a status of a switching operation, etc. of an on-off value installed in a processing gas supply pipe supplying a processing gas to the thermal processing furnace 202 while performing the process recipe, etc. in a monitor information collecting unit installed in the substrate processing apparatus, transmit the collected information to a monitored data analysis system disposed outside the substrate processing apparatus, accumulate the transmitted information by recording the collected information in a database consisting of a non-volatile memory medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), etc. included in the system, and use the accumulated information for error analysis when an error occurs or data analysis of substrate processing data, etc.
Meanwhile, in order to improve performance of the substrate processing apparatus, an increase in the number of monitored data collecting sensors or an increase of a sampling period for collecting sensor data is performed, for example, the sampling period is increased to 1 Hz to 10 Hz, or 100 Hz. In this case, an amount of monitored data is increased according to the increase of the number of monitored data collecting sensors or the increase of the sampling period for collecting the sensor data. However, in the conventional art, when the amount of monitored data is increased, much work such as a change of control software of the system, etc. is required since the system cannot flexibly respond to the increase of the amount of monitored data the system receives.